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PHOENIX—The tournament-ending rib injury to Canadian third baseman Brett Lawrie may not be the end of the world for the Jays, but it may well mark the end of Team Canada’s World Baseball Classic hopes.

It’s not that Lawrie was expected to carry the offensive load but among Canada’s nine starting players, the 23-year old from Langley, B.C., was the most potent right-handed bat. Without his presence, will Joey Votto and Justin Morneau ever see anything to hit?

Lawrie thinks the injury came during the first couple of innings of Canada’s final tuneup for the WBC, a meaningless exhibition against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night.

Lawrie, as he is wont to do, recklessly dove all over the place, typical of the all-out hustle that as he matures likely will come more under control. Lawrie needs to play smarter to prolong his pro career and maintain his health. He had a similar issue last season, first diving over a railing into a deep camera bay at Yankee Stadium in May, then playing through an oblique injury to his right side in June. Eventually, he was forced out of action and missed two months. He claimed he learned his lesson.

“The start of it was (the same),” Lawrie said, comparing the two injuries. “But it was on my right side, it was in a different spot. Relatively the same area, but it’s like it was deeper in there. This one’s more exterior, feels more to the outside. But it’s definitely not as bad.

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“I caught it early enough and thankfully I learned from last time and I feel like that’s important. It’s beneficial for myself that I just did the right thing.”

But is it a mistake for major-league players to step up to play for their country when there are 162 games ahead for the team that pays his salary?

“Anything can happen,” Lawrie shrugged, in the course of a 10-minute press dugout briefing after seeing the doctor. “You never know. I could have done it today going out to take B.P. You never know when these things are going to happen.”

The Lawrie injury can’t be blamed on the WBC. Injuries occur all the time during the spring, just ask the Yankees. With 27 days between the time of the strain and opening day, there’s time for Lawrie to be healthy and ready to go.

Baseball is trying hard to make this WBC concept work as its marquee event, so it will never recommend that the game’s stars take the three weeks off and stay with their clubs.

Life’s a gamble.

“Playing in a game, it could happen to anybody,” Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos said. “I think it would have occurred here, I really do. The good news is that it doesn’t look like it’s going to be serious.”

Both Lawrie and Anthopoulos are talking about 2-3 weeks, which is enough to knock him out of all three rounds of the WBC.

“They get better when they want to,” said Lawrie, repeating the words of his doctor. “It doesn’t matter how much you treat it. I think going out there and playing and still having it nag at me would not benefit my team, nor my country, nor myself. I feel that if I went out there and continued playing, this thing could turn into something that it doesn’t need to be. It would eventually hurt the Blue Jays, and that’s not what I want.”

Replacing Lawrie will be a difficult task for Canada.

The starter at third against Italy will now be 26-year-old Taylor Green, another left-handed hitter. Green has some MLB experience, batting .265 in 103 at-bats for the Brewers last year. The Comox, B.C., native has the endorsement of manager Ernie Whitt’s good friend, Garth Iorg, who is the organizational infield instructor in Milwaukee. He assures that third-base is Green’s best position. Then there’s James Van Ostrand.

Balancing the loss of Lawrie was the arrival of NL MVP Votto in a Team Canada uniform for the first time. The Reds’ slugger has been cleared to play and may wind up as the DH, with Morneau at first.

“It’s the highs and lows of baseball, and you take the good with the bad,” Whitt said. “With Joey being on the team, it’s definitely a good thing; with Brett being lost to the team, it’s a bad thing. But we will make-do. We will continue to fight through this, and we’ll definitely field a team out there and it will be a team of grinders, guys that will grind it out, battle every at-bat.

The visual of the day had to be Canadian hitting coach Larry Walker leaning on the batting cage with Morneau swinging and Votto waiting his turn.

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